Nothing's Changed
by theindecisivewreck
Summary: The two have been without each other for all of Junior High and most of High School, so why start now? Except, anyone would find it hard to avoid Kai when you have to tutor him every Wednesday.
1. Anonymous Emails and Unspoken Words

Jinora watches his eyebrows bunch together in concentration- amusement and annoyance dancing in her eyes. Just another tutoring lesson- nothing new.

After checking a week ago at the flyer she hung up, another slip carrying her email was missing. She's been anticipating a message any day then, almost dropping her phone once it buzzed over her palm.

* * *

From: grade_A_badass37 varrmail,com

To: jinoratutoring varrmail,com

so, hey. i sort of need sum tutoring and i heard that you were the best. im free on every wed. i could do 3-5 pm after school and we can meet in the republic city library.i need tutoring on physics, calculus, and english. can u help?

* * *

To: grade_A_badass37

From: jinoratutoring varrmail,com

Oh, of course. For the first lesson you'll need to bring the last test and the grade you did from each subject you need tutoring on. May I get a name? I'm charging $20 per hour.

* * *

From: grade_A_badass37 varrmail,com

To: jinoratutoring varrmail,com

yeah, yeah. you'll recognize me when you see me.

* * *

Jinora was quizzical about the whole thing- of course she messaged the person again but no reply back. The email wasn't familiar (entirely unprofessional, she must add- no name or anything), and she messaged her friend, Fei, if she knew anyone with the same email. Nope. Not at all, surprisingly- Fei knew almost everyone in the school.

But low and behold, at the library at 3:12 on a Wednesday, the notorious Kai stood standing over the library table. Jinora's breath hitched.

His shoulders were hunched over while his hands were shoved into his pockets in his dark blue jeans. His green t-shirt was undeniably wrinkled but just enough to become annoyingly stylish. Brown hair messy over his undercut, his green eyes squinting back at Jinora.

Somehow, Jinora was able to find her voice. "Kai?" Her voice incredulous.

"Hey, Jinora." Kai. The well known heartbreaker of Republic City High. Kai. The kid that sat behind her in the eighth grade, his feet always on the basket underneath her chair- always bouncing his knee probably just to shake her desk. Kai. The unforgettable boy of elementary school.

"You're here for tutoring?" His gaze was a little sheepish.

"Yeah, so? My fost-" -he clears his throat- "-My parents are pushing me about my grades. Told me to get a tutor. So, here I am," he gestures around at the library. Jinora barely manages to catch his slip-up. She wants to bombard him questions, how he's doing, how they're doing, if they're still fine. But she doesn't.

Pulling back the chair, it gave a loud screeching noise. The librarian glared at him while he gave back a charming smirk, the librarian rolls her eyes along with Jinora.

"For the whole school year?" Jinora bites her lip, she can't be passive aggressive at him. She removes a piece of paper from her orange binder and places it on the table along with a pencil.

"Uh, yeah." He raises an eyebrow. "Got a problem with that, sweetheart?" His voice sarcastically sweet.

"Calculus, English, and Physics?" She asks, her eyebrow raised. His smirk falls and turns to a scowl.

"Not everyone can be little Miss Perfect in school. Some people need to work their butt off," he pauses. "Like me. Are we gonna get tutoring or not?" Jinora sighed, her fingers ran through her hair.

"Hand over your tests," she held out her hand. He swung off his dark green backpack, a bunch of keychains heavy on the zippers. Tears and holes were ripped into the bottom and she saw masses of clutter of papers inside. He handed over wrinkled pieces of paper and the last quarter's grades.

She takes a look on the calculus test. 42% and F are bolded in red highlighter. English: 65%, D. Physics: 72%, C-, too was bolded in red highlighter.

"Yikes," she said under her breath. The first quarter's grades weren't so great either.

"See what I mean?" His fingers drum against the table, Jinora's own fingers twitching to just slap them away. "Will you help?" Jinora nods, biting her lip. Her shoulders tense at his presence

"Yeah, let's get started on Calculus."

* * *

So here he is, his pencil scribbling over a fresh new piece of paper- reworking out the question to find out what went wrong. Of course sooo many things are wrong while he works it out, Jinora just wants to push him out of the chair and do it herself but with great, _great_ self control she manages not to.

But oddly, Calculus isn't the only thing filling her mind. She doesn't know whether or not if he remembers- it's not like he would anyways. Jinora bets he can't remember the last girl he dated let alone something in elementary school. She's completely not apart of his life- except for being his tutor- and she's happy. She's fine without him

After he sets down the pencil he grins at the paper proudly- Jinora tries not to have a smug grin on her face as she points at something within the equation.

"Where did you get that variable?"

"Well- uh, doesn't that thing go with that thing and-" She saves him from further embarrassment. He's absolutely clueless

She sighs, "Let me help." Then there Jinora is again, launching herself into explanation on how he did it wrong and how the equation really is supposed to work out. After many going throughs with functions, it's 5:01 and Kai swings over his backpack- stuffing the tests in, and handing over the 40$.

Jinora hands clasps together from under her binder. "You think you got it?"

"Yeah, don't worry."

"Next week we'll get into English," she gives a stiff smile. They both exit out of the stuffy book-filled building. He leaves first, his torn sneakers walking off, crunching the stray dead leaves that managed to escape the bare, winter trees.

Jinora almost drops the binder she's carrying when she hears him say, "Later, Breadhead."

And he was off.

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys, thank you for reading this new story. I'll try to update weekly but we'll see about that. I have a bunch of cool ideas for this story so let's see where this would be heading. Please don't forget to drop a review, they're always appreciated!**

**Art is by vasirasart on tumblr and she's an amazing artist with quite a bit of LOK fanart so definitely check her out!**

**Oh, and by the way, the emailing thing they used is called varrmail. You know, Varri... Varric... Varrick. I was thinking he would probably ****have this huge company like Google, also making electronics and stuff.**


	2. Bad Cooking and Wishful Getaways

His lips pursed at the passing cars around him. If only he didn't get caught sneaking out at night, his foster parents would've at least let him bring his motorcycle to school- or anywhere, really.

They care, they really do. Except maybe a bit too much.

Always fussing over his grades, making him take dumb tutoring lessons. Putting locks on the windows so he can't sneak out through them.

Totally unfair.

Republic City is busy as usual, honking cars, and barking dogs. The familiar smell of cigarettes and car exhaust in the air. Though, that's all Kai really known. The smell of gasoline and smoky breathed civilians.

He's tried one once, a cigarette. He didn't really know what he was expecting but it sure wasn't that. He tried hard not to sputter out and break out into a coughing fit the first time. Ever since then, he's been trying to stay away from smoking. It's not really his thing.

Of course his parents freaked when they smelt the smoky air around him that time. Pretty much grounded for six months.

Speaking of strict…

"Hey, Kai! How was tutoring?" June called from the kitchen.

"Great," he deadpanned, dropping his backpack in the living room. His stare blank and steely. Unfortunately, sarcasm flies right over her head and she gave him a bright smile saying, "That's great, how was Jinora?"

His fingers twitch.

"Good as always," he drawls. He leans over her shoulders to see what she's cooking. It doesn't look like anything he would call 'appetizing'. 'Edible' doesn't fit the category either, with the pot filled with brown, bubbling sludge. Kai can spy a fish head floating in it, its glassy eyes staring back at him.

He suppresses a shudder.

June turns around at him, "Oh, do you want some? I was waiting for your father-"

June, annoyingly, looks similar to him. Same green eyes and brown (now teetering on the description of grey) unkempt hair- despite there being no relation to him. For the six years she's been listed as a guardian, he still refuses to refer to her as Mom- only doing so in her presence.

"No, no," he backs away hastily. "I already ate earlier."

"Oh, really? Are you sure, because I can just-"

"Nope, fine, Ju- Mom," he bites back. "Really!" He darts up the stairs to his room, his backpack flying behind him.

He swings open his bedroom door, posters saying DO NOT ENTER shudder from the motion.

He's welcome by the cool air of the open windowed room. It takes awhile for him to sweep his eyes over the bedroom- checking if his parents barged in and decided to do a mass cleaning without telling him- despite it being clean already.

Kai's room is neat, despite everyone's impression of him. Posters are still clustered on his green walls but can still be considered organized. Most of the posters are bands he doesn't even listen to anymore- others just of some tv shows. There are probably layers and layers of posters he doesn't remember having, showing some timeline of interests he's had over the many years.

Kai puts his music on shuffle and leans back against his bed. The mattress' springs squeak loudly under his weight.

His eyes shutter with weight- his mind soon spiraling through dreams. It's something about a summer scented backyard, and the scent of wax, and the sound of turning paper. A clear smile recoils around his mind- burning him.

He jumps at a voice outside his door. "Dear, are you doing homework?" June. Kai scrambles to get up, his eyes darting to his phone. The clock glares with 8:00 PM.

"Shit," he mutters under his breath. "Uh-uh, yes, J- Mom!" His voice cracks. His forehead is wet with sweat from sleeping. Kai can almost hear a nod as she walks back downstairs- probably back to cooking something that could poison a whole country.

Sighing, he grabs his backpack and snatches at a half written essay that's due for tomorrow. He needs to win back his parents' trust. He needs to get his motorcycle back- to travel away to God knows where.

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys! Thank you for the positive reviews last chapter, really happy to see people liking the story! I would still like to get more reviews so don't be afraid to send one in!**


	3. Metal Necklaces and Nicknamed Comebacks-

Having a father who taught martial arts had its perks- like being taught for free.

Young Jinora in the prime age of eight, stood barefoot in Tenzin's (her dad's) Martial Arts class. She held herself proudly while kicking at her father's gloved hands. Her ferocity can be considered cute, but for her, it's her battle face.

She managed to make her dad stumble back-after thinking about it a few years later, he probably faked it.

"Okay, okay, Jinora." Tenzin tugged off the gloves. "You can get back to your seat," Jinora was merely demonstrating for the class. She sat down crossed legged on the blue mat, trying to hide how much her breath quickened.

"That was an excellent demonstration, Jinora," Tenzin grinned but a cough escaped from one of his students.

"Cough- biase- cough." The voice belonged to a boy named Rin, a cocky smile plastered on his face. Tenzin shot him a look but continued onto the lesson, demonstrating a different technique. Though, Jinora wasn't in the mood for listening.

She was seething.

Despite her being young, she was talented for her age. It could be safe to say she's the best in her class- starting earlier than anyone else. Though, each praise always comes with a nasty remark from Rin. This remark not so different from the rest though Jinora couldn't help but clutch her fist. Her knuckles turned white.

"So, lets get into partners," Tenzin clapped his hands, making Jinora jump. He called pairs of students.

"Mei, and Key," Jinora watched a girl get up, facing another boy on a blue mat. Please not Rin, please not Rin. She repeated it like a mantra. The class narrows down to Rin, and one girl, and boy.

"Jinora, and Kai," she let out a relieved sigh- turning to the boy who must be her partner.

She was familiar with him, from what she remembers he had enough potential to become pretty good. Stance a bit too loose but enough for him to be quick on his feet. Jinora gave a small smile back to the boy.

After Tenzin paired up the students they faced each other on the mat, their fists posed- Jinora just copying Kai's stance.

"So- um, I sort of didn't listen to what he was saying," she whispered through gritted teeth.

"That makes two of us, just follow my lead." The boy glances around, watching the other students quietly. All of a sudden Kai swings a kick over and Jinora is able to block it in time.

"I think you just have to block," he whispered. She gave a small nod. Tenzin walked over, eying them both, Jinora holds in a breath but lets it out as Tenzin walks by content.

They both continue, until Tenzin calls a stop. When bowing to each other, they let out a small sigh of relief.

Tenzin called today's class to an end. Several parents came up to him to thank him or just to chat with him, leaving Jinora to wait outside with her bag slung over. Most of the children already left.

She plopped down on the curb, watching a man walk his dog across the street.

"Hey Jinora," a snotty voice called from behind her. Rin had his usual grin. His fingers laced around his dog tag at his collar, the metal refracted from the sun. It had a bunch of nonsense characters- probably just for show.

She scowled at him and sat up, her lips pursed.

"Did you earn that brown belt or did your daddy give it to you?" A couple of his friends laughed behind him, their arms crossed over their chests- attempting to look intimidating but really looking ridiculous. Jinora suppressed an eye roll.

"His compliments don't help cover up how much you suck," Rin spat on the sidewalk by her. Standing there, he looked at her back- irritated not to get a response at all. His grimy fingers grab at her shoulder, pulling her up from sitting. Facing him.

"Are you gonna answer me?" He sauntered closer to Jinora, their face only a few inches apart. Jinora stared him down.

"Huh? Are you?!" She could smell the foul stench to his breath but she only bit at her bottom lip, willing herself not to speak. Just a few more minutes until his parents would drag him away, ignorant in knowing what their child does everytime he waits for them to pick him up.

She noticed the layer of sweat above his brows and the large amount of gel used in his combed back brown hair. She was close enough to see a light dotting of freckles on his cheeks.

"No, she isn't," another voice came from over Rin's shoulder. The boy separated the two children from each other, sizing up on Rin. The boy's eyebrows scrunched up in intimidation and he puffed his chest out. All Rin does is share a glance between his friends and back away, heading towards the car that pulled up in the driveway.

"Pfft, whatever," is all Rin said.

Jinora coughed at the car exhaust that carried Rin and his posse away. She turned to the boy, Kai. He shoved something metal into his pocket.

"You okay?" He adjusted his bag strap.

"Yeah- oh, um, thanks." Her shoulders stood stiff, her fingers rubbing at her wrist.

"No, prob. They're a bunch of jerks, anyways. Don't listen to them," he gave a small grin. "You were pretty good blocking me today. They don't know what they're talking about."

She crossed her arms over her chest, "I just wish they would stop singling me off like that. I didn't ask to be the daughter." Jinora huffed, sitting on the curb. He nodded and took a seat next to her.

Jinora's eyes involuntarily sweeped up and down Kai, calculating him. His brown hair looked as if he just got caught in a massive breeze, or he ruffled it on purpose. His shirt looked wrinkled, and as he tapped his fingers against his side she can spy his fingernails bitten to a nub. A familiar chain hung from his jeans pocket. Her eyes finally found themselves back to his face after noticing his muddy shoes.

Jinora looked over her shoulder and back in the martial arts dojo. She didn't see any cars parked nor any parents there to pick Kai up.

As if Kai could read her mind he said, "I'll leave to walk home for a sec- my feet are killing me."

"Yeah, mine are too." When our feet aren't on mats their standing on hard wooden floor for an hour. He snickered.

"Your dad is a good teacher but sometimes he sometimes takes everything a little too seriously.

"He tends to do that. There was this time I had a bake sale and my dad decided to bake about five loads of muffins- when no one bought all of them he almost started to yell at our neighbors to take them," Kai laughed, to Jinora's delight.

"I wish I had a dad like that," his eyes widened for a moment- almost as if he said something he shouldn't

"How is your dad?"

"H-he's okay, probably not as strict as your dad but okay." There was a tone to his voice that sounded like he wasn't welcome to answering anymore questions. She obliged.

He took his eyes of the leaves and dirt along the edge of the sidewalk and stared intensely at her before flitting to the top of her hair. Jinora self consciously looks up.

"Is there a bug?" She ducked and she gets a laugh in response.

He wrinkled his nose, "Why do you always put only a part of your hair into a bun?" Blinking, she lifts her hand to her hair. 'Always', as in he took note of her previous hairstyles before.

"Oh, um. No reason, really."

"It reminds me of a roll of bread," he squinted. She swatted his arm.

"It does not," Jinora huffed.

"Does too. It has the same shape and everything," Kai remarked.

"Well… Your eyes are the colors of swamps."

"Atleast I'm not Breadhead."

"Atleast I'm not Swampeyes-" Jinora heard a call of her name from the dojo.

"Jinora!" Her dad called, he immediately takes notice of the boy beside her. His whiskery brows furrowed. Tenzin's attention took back to Jinora. "Your mother called, she wants to talk to you on the phone." Jinora nodded, and got up, turning to Kai.

"Well, thanks for saving me from Rin," she smiled.

"Like I said, no prob. See ya later, Breadhead." His lips curved into a grin, she laughs.

"You too, Swampeyes." She swung her black bag over her shoulder and gave a small wave goodbye.

While walking into the dojo she looked back at Kai. His hand holding something shiny. Rin's metal necklace.

* * *

**(A/N): I decided to send in both of the chapters at the same time since I got both finished. I'll probably follow the pattern of Jinora chapter, Kai chapter,and then Past chapter- probably from either POV.**

**Thank you for reading and reviews are always appreciated!**


	4. Curious Friends and Spray Painted Walls

Jinora throws herself onto her bed, Fei does so too a few inches away from her- both groaning from their backpack-sore shoulders. Fei always visits her house on Fridays, she would visit more often if it wasn't for Tenzin's strict rules about friends around the house.

That rule was set only a year ago after Ikki and Melo brought all of their friends over for a party while her parents were at a dinner. Imagine trying to also satisfy your six year old little brother while making sure that Ikki doesn't have access to your mom's wine cellar.

Not so great.

After about five minutes in silence, Jinora props herself up on her elbows, mumbling an almost incoherent "So, studying?"

Fei nods, and shakes out her mangled black hair before dumping out her homework.

"Ugh, Professor Beifong is such buzzkill. A ten paged -hand written, I must add- essay about the history of Ba Sing Se." She pulls out her homework planner and what Jinora assumes is her actually essay, being nine pages short. There were scrawls of words all over the single paper, written in green gel pen. A heavy load of white-out could be seen blocking out past attempts at the beginning.

"Fei, that's due tomorrow. She assigned that last week," Jinora raises an eyebrow, looking over her friend's shoulder at her planner. There were scrawls of "- Mrs. Beifong wants it to have a two lined spacing and a 'culture comparison' for E.C., WTF" on the margin of today's date, along with other not so censored words directed at her teacher.

"I was busy," Fei shrugs. Which was true, Jinora has been driven up the wall with Fei complaining about Music Club, an after school activity she's president of. The club produces a show every year, Fei has to make sure clothing, lighting, and tickets and brochures are all good. She still needs someone to design the tickets, and to schedule rehearsals and to about everything else. And the way Fei handles things is, well, not handling them at all.

"School first, then-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jin. Let's not talk about school, okay? I really don't want to have a panic attack today," Fei's fingers rubs at her forehead feverishly, her eyebrows bunched together. Jinora sighs and obliges, propping her organized binder on her crossed legs before speaking up. "Well, what to talk about?"

Fei doesn't miss a beat with, "How was tutoring?"

"What do you mean?" Jinora asks lamely. She pretends to look interested in the graded quiz she got yesterday. "How was Music Club?"

"Jin, you're not avoiding this! Let me rephrase my question," Fei faces her friend and leans in, emphasizing each word. "Tell me about Kai."

* * *

Kai. That was one thing Jinora could never figure out.

Due to Faith, a God, or something, Kai used to be as apart of her life as her siblings, but... not anymore. He was always there in the corner of her eye in Physics class, both daring not to speak to each other. Well, until tutoring.

Thinking about it, Jinora figures that June had something to do with Kai picking her, of all people, to be tutored by. And she bets he wasn't so happy about it.

In seventh grade she watched him become who he is now steadily. Jinora remembers the spray painted vulgar words that were found at the Gym walls in freshman year. The words undeniably Kai with its connected letters and that loop on every d, t, but never k. The dot hovering over the i more like a slash than a dot. He hated getting teased about his neat handwriting and organized room, something Jinora used to tease him about anyways.

The thing was, no one knew who spray painted the wall. It was this huge 'mystery', as High School mysteries go.

Everyone was brought into an assembly, the classes were bunched into groups in the Multi Purpose Room. They projected the message on the wall, all the cursing blurred. There were laughs along with the booming voice of the principle saying something about how someone needs to turn themselves in.

Jinora was shocked for a bit, her eyes wide before craning her neck over the crowd to where Kai was. She expected to see his best friend, Rin, fist bumping him or something but he just stood there with his hand shoved in his jacket pockets, his head tilted downward. He had this small, smug grin, something not everyone would notice.

Jinora would like to think of herself not 'everyone' when it comes to the subject of Kai.

Kai was rubbing his fingers together, green dust fell from his fingers like dust. But instead of dust, it was dried paint.

* * *

"Kai was fine. Bad at Calculus, but fine," Jinora pushed the words out nonchalantly while Fei lifted an eyebrow.

"Really?" Fei mused.

"Yep," Jinora was already scribbling down her homework. Not daring for Fei to see her eyes, she expected she could see the lies through them. Expecting about an hour of pestering, all Fei did was shrug again.

"Okay then," Fei said, her face unreadable.

The two girls worked in an almost concentrated silence. Both of their minds not in their work but elsewhere.

* * *

**A/N: I tend to write this story out of order and I was writing a whole a bunch of other scenes besides this one and so that's why it took awhile. Anyways, thank you for reading and reviews are always appreciated! I'll try to introduce Fei better next Jinora chapter (I don't even know if I'll stick to the POV orders this whole fic) , I think. Not that much to build off of her from this one. I'll hopefully get the next chapter in- I usually say that on every chapter but then I take about 2 weeks or something, so WHO KNOWS. School started so that will most likely get in the way of all my writing progress. It's a slow and painful journey, my friend.**


	5. People Hunting Hats and Growth Spurts

Kai has the habit of not watching where he is going. His mind always elsewhere, far from the car humming streets of Republic City. Of course, he always thought of the idea of being more alert. You know, so he doesn't get hit by a car when straying off the sidewalk? But that's the least of his worries.

His mind is a blob thoughts and ideas he can't pin together, almost intangible in a way. Everything appears to blur and mix around him when thinking about whether or not he should learn how to pick locks in order to get into the shed holding his motorcycle. Or if he should actually try studying.

He's leaning more towards the first option.

Soon enough, he's already at the glass doors of the Republic City library- one of the bigger libraries in the area. These huge, polished columns line every corner. They're a dark red, brown color like a mix between red wine and spruce wood.

The bookshelves always join together to form a maze, and Kai finds himself backtracking and using books as landmarks to find the table he and Jinora sat at a week ago. After passing by the A-G isle seven times he finds Jinora sitting on a wooden stool.

Kai always notices how she always sits with one leg folded beneath her and her other leg kicking at the wooden table's leg- like a cat, he likes to muse. Her eyes are scanning at an old tattered book that isn't a textbook. The paper of the pages are old and yellow, and Kai can see the corners of the pages folded and pressed underneath the weight of her hand. Kai would say he has the knack of observing people- maybe something he picked up along the skill of thieving but he doesn't really wait to question it.

He watches her slim fingers slip under each page and flip it over delicately as if the book was her own personal treasure. The bridge of her nose crinkles with concentration and her bottom lip is caught between her teeth- one of those faces he can easily recognize.

He coughs into his sleeve purposely for Jinora to hear him. She turns to him and she tilts her head ever so slightly while her shoulders tense. Whatever grace she held before is gone by the slight mention of his presence. She's rigid and intimidating, and boy, would his friends laugh if they knew he would be intimidated by 'Know it all', as they call her. Kai pushes the lump in his throat down.

"Tutoring, right?" He forces out smoothly, trying to ease the thick tension with what he supposes is a charming smile. It used to work on Jinora but all that he receives is a raised eyebrow.

"Sit," she pointed at the seat across from her.

He obliges and releases his backpack onto the ground with a thud, making Jinora cringe at the sound. She recovers and looks down to memorize her page number before sliding it to the corner of the table.

"So, uh," she clears her throat. "It's my first time tutoring someone on English, and let me just say that Sparknote can be useful for the book you have to read."

"June blocked the website and she wants you to babysit me," he replies bluntly. Amusement flickers along the edges of her irises but she doesn't ease the tenseness of her shoulders, all she does it nod curtly.

"What book?"

"I have it with me- just wait," he grunts while bending over to dig through his backpack. The book doesn't exactly stick out of his backpack well enough, the book being about as large as his hand. Maybe being even smaller.

"Aha!" He succeeds in finding the book and holds it up to Jinora's face. She grabs at it and does another head tilt.

"_Catcher in the Rye_, huh." She says something under her breath that Kai can't hear as she slides the book back to him. "Good book, you'll like it."

"How would you know?" He challenges

"I just do," she narrows her brown eyes at him before snapping her attention back to the book she was reading. "I'll check up on you every chapter, give me a synopsis on each one." Kai groans and lets his head slump over the table, his hair falling to his face. Jinora doesn't budge with his begging, a low grunt slips out his lips as he begins to read.

Even through the words of Holden Caulfield, he can feel her steady gaze on his face. Kai's eyes flit up to Jinora, his eyebrows under strain.

She is fixated on him- and not in the way some girls were when he passed by them in the hallway. Most people would say the look appears to be reminiscent? But no, that can't be Jinora. Kai knows Jinora, and she wouldn't be forgiving him too easily. Jinora looks away quickly, her cheeks sporting a flustered blush.

"Why are you staring at me?" Her eyes meet his again, again with something Kai can't read.

"You seem… taller," her eyebrows scrunch together, and Kai can't help but laugh. He straightens his back to find that he has to look down to Jinora in order to look her in the eye.

The view of her is nostalgic in the least. The image of her younger self flickers between each blink he takes. Her brown hair now spills down her shoulders and the bun on the side of her head is gone. His old Bread Head is gone- no, that's silly. She's right in front of him, isn't she?

He hums in response, and pays his attention back down to his book.

Even with such a small interaction he contemplates whether to forgive her even when she won't forgive him.

* * *

**AN: I finalllyyy updated, woo! I hope it's good enough for an update though, had a bit of trouble writing this.**

**Anyways, thank you for reading and I love getting reviews so please do so!**


	6. Rat Infestations and Huge Manors-

It's been a month since Rin 'miraculously' found his metal necklace tucked away inside his bag after crying for a whole martial arts lesson, and since then, Jinora grew a liking towards Kai despite his thievery.

It was late June and this was when Republic City became a hot and humid mess.

"Ugh, it's too hot for this hair," Jinora growled, lifting the wet curls from her sweaty neck. "I should cut it off."

"I'll help you," Kai said, licking an ice cream cone.

"I am not at all volunteering my hair for it to become a bird's nest by your hair styling skills," she said.

They were walking around the plaza around the dojo, and of course Jinora couldn't be trusted to be walking all alone with Kai. They both ignored Tenzin watching through the blinds of the window.

"Hey, your loss." He kicked a stray soda can into a wall and Jinora ran over to throw it away, raising an eyebrow.

"Didn't your parents ever taught you not to litter?" She snapped.

He rubbed the back of his neck hastily, "well, uh- not really. They were always… Busy."

"Busy," Jinora repeated, raising a brow.

"Yep." Kai fidgeted nervously. He was always like this when talking about his parents even though he doesn't talk about them often. She pursed her lips but kept quiet, she wasn't looking for an argument.

They had an hour looking through the mass of shops that lined the street. It took awhile for Kai to pull Jinora away from the bookstore. The books were her bait. They were able to arrive on time at the dojo with Tenzin busy talking on the phone

"Jin, can you excuse Kai for a moment?" Her dad asked. She narrowed her eyes at the phone. He gripped it tightly and she can hear the voice humming from the speakers.

"Oh-uh, sure."

Tenzin pulled Kai into the dojo and Jinora was left picking at the edges of her ice cream cone. She could hear a lot of hushed arguments and soon a loud sigh from whom she assumed was Kai. A few minutes later Kai walks out the door looking slightly sheepish and a bit bitter with her dad trailing behind him. Kai flinched from what she supposed was a kind gesture that was Tenzin gripping his shoulder.

"There's a rat infestation at Kai's house so he's staying at the manor and I won't be home for tonight. Business things. But Korra will help him out."

"What about his pare-"

"They're out of town," Kai grumbled, fiddling with his sleeve hem. Again with his parents.

"Well, let's head home."

The drive home was awkward at best while her dad tried to make conversation with Kai. Things like "How's school", and "What's your grade point average" seemed to be the only thing Tenzin wanted to talk about. At least her house wasn't far, she wouldn't be able to stand listening about her dad's small talk for another five minutes.

They soon pulled into the driveway of the huge manor a bit far from the city. Her father inherited the house since her Grandfather, Aang, earned this huge amount of money. She heard all these things about her Grandfather and she never really knew how to describe his job. His many accomplishments included: he stopped two species of lemurs and bison from going extinct, he was in the center of the war with her Grandma and managed to end it with peace, he stopped a bunch of cities from being overrun by a power-hungry nation. He was a hero, to sum it all up.

The Air Manor was something built by Grandpa Aang himself. It was a huge estate with several studies and living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms. Jinora often found herself in a closet instead of her bedroom because of the labyrinth-like halls that had rooms lining every wall.

"Woah," Kai said under his breath, his palms pressed up against the car window. The car parked in place, and Kai dizzily got out of the car, and it pulled out of the driveway, driving away her dad with it.

Stepping out, a loud bark barely warned him from a large white dog toppling over him. Naga was this rare breed of dog- thinking that aloud made Jinora cringe somehow. From someone else's point of view, her whole family appeared entirely snobby and pretentious. Well, Naga didn't exactly belong to her family. It belonged to Korra, who was immediately running after Naga, yelling scolds.

Kai wiped off the dog slobber with his shirt. He didn't seem used to pets.

"Oh, sorry about that. Naga loves meeting new people," Korra said, ruffling her dog's fur.

"Uh- very friendly…" He wrinkles his nose. Korra turns to Jinora, her eyes gleaming.

"New friend?" Korra asked

"Oh, yes! This is Kai, Korra meet Kai, he's staying for the night," Jinora introduced. "Korra is Tenzin's friend's daughter, she's sort of a babysitter." Korra was a daughter of a mayor in the South. Korra's father sent her off to Republic City for better education and because of the lack of a living space, Korra decided to break into their house at an ungodly hour and Jinora found Korra asleep in her father's study. Tenzin begrudgingly agreed to let her stay.

She always got herself arrested though, like this one time when she accidentally helped a robbery. Jinora's dad had to bail her out. Despite that, she did well with keeping Jinora's hyperactive siblings under control when babysitting and well, Jinora's dad goes on a lot of business trips. While he's not a martial arts teacher, he's a representative of the Republic City Council. Jinora got used to having a busy parent.

"Well, he better keep himself in good behavior- I can't control another rabid chipmunk like those two-" just on timing, Jinora heard a loud BANG from the garden and a 'let's do it again!' Korra panicked and ran back to the garden screaming, "No, don't touch that!"

Kai stood there bewildered and slightly confused, blinking rapidly. He snapped out of his daze and scratched his head. "You have some family," he said,

"Yep." With that, they headed into the manor where even years after they both agreed their friendship started in that one, exact night.

* * *

**A/N: There we go, though, I'm not so happy with this chapter but I might as well get this one out. Writing this story has been harder than usual. Maybe my fading interest of Legend of Korra. I'll try to finish this story.**

**Anyways, thank you for reading, and thank you for all reviews I've been getting. Keep on sending reviews!**


	7. New 'Friend' and Red Mittens

Fall is finally catching up to Republic City. The chilled air nips at Jinora's nose and she snuggles into her hoodie deeper.

It's one of those weekends. You know, the ones where everyone had something planned to do and all you can say is that there was a small chance you would go to the bookstore? Yeah, one of those.

Her hands wrap around her thermos full of tea, the only warmth she can manage to obtain. Fei bought it for her for Christmas two years ago. The first year they were friends, Jinora made Fei feel bad about buying too 'small' of a gift. Since this caused too much guilt for the both of them, they decided to only give small daily-use things to each other; like socks or umbrellas.

And to think about it, with the looming clouds above her, she sort of regrets not bringing an umbrella. She doesn't know how long she would be out, or even where she's going. She had the misfortune of learning that her favorite used book bookstore was closed for some kind of lighting problem after she left the house. Already having to tell her dad to trust her on going out on her own, she couldn't turn back now.

She later finds herself in a small park, one that her babysitter used to take her to every weekend. Due to the season, the trees held golden leaves that barely held onto the almost bare branches. It was the sign of pumpkins, election season, and almost-Christmas. If anything, it was her favorite season. Maybe it had to do with her favorite color everywhere, or the love for Pumpkin spice lattes. Who knew?

With her journal on her lap, she taps the tip of her pen to her lip. She wouldn't go so far to say that it was a diary, it had notes about things and a bunch of her favorite words, some of the information in it was for school. If she went far enough back, she might've been able to see the first draft she ever started on for Journalism.

"Hey," a voice said. Jinora looks up. It was a boy; nervous looking, she had to admit. He had several coats weighing on his shoulders and a large scarf wrapped around his neck. He looked pretty ridiculous drowning in several pieces of clothing when it was only a bit cold. He probably wasn't from here.

"Can I, uh- sit here?" He asks, pointing to the seat next to her's.

"Oh, sure," she replies. Apparently her response is enough to lift the tenseness from his shoulders. He sinks into the spot next to her, his bag thudding besides him. She doesn't mean to snoop around but she spies a book- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury- in his bag; one of her favorites. She bites her tongue, maybe he doesn't want to converse.

"Hey, you're Jinora, right?" She blinks, not recognizing him. Nevermind with the whole no conversing thing. "I recognize you from school." He continues.

"Oh, right," she lies. It's unlike her to forget someone but she has those moments.

"I'm Lian, by the way," they shake hands, his hands all covered up with red mittens, the color matching his Ray Ban glasses.

"I'm Jinora-"

"And I already knew that," he notes. The air doesn't seem so cold anymore, she feels her neck grow red.

"Oh-uh, right. Sorry-"

"No, it's fine."

"I'm usually, uh, better at speaking than this," she adds, "and a bit more intelligent than I sound."

"No, it's fine! The newspaper, right?" Jinora blinks, her fingers twirling a stray strand hanging off her sleeve.

"Y-yeah," she stammers. Jinora never thought that anyone actually read the school newspaper except for Fei, only reading it for Jinora's sake.

"You're good at writing." Jinora bobbed her head awkwardly in some sort of 'thanks'.

"Are you in any clubs?" She's able to say

"Nah," he laughs, "I'm usually busy working at that music shop from across the coffee shop near school." She recalls that music shop, she seen it when walking to and from the library. Ukuleles, and brass instruments somehow all crammed into the tiny store.

"Do you play?" She asked.

"Sort of, I can sing and play guitar or ukulele but that's about it."

"Well I'm about as tone deaf as someone can be," she jokes. He laughs, a quiet chuckle if anything but Jinora feels the heat rise to her cheeks. Before she could think about anything else, her phone beeps to her disappointment.

"Well, I should go," she sighs, pushing her almost forgotten journal into her bag.

"See you around," he calls as she leaves. Jinora smiles and nods before the warmth of meeting a person wears off.

* * *

It's been two weeks since she met Lian and Kai's stuff is spread across the table; pencils, papers, homework, textbooks. His boots are propped up on another chair, one that she's supposed to be seated in, and he seems deep in doodling in his spiral notebook. She hasn't seen him draw in a while and it was a pretty familiar sight. He still did that thing where he would scrunch up his nose without him realizing it.

"Kai?" He jumped, his pencil dropping onto his lap.

"Huh, what?" He blinks a few times as if coming out of a daze. His eyes drop to his phone. "You're late."

"Yeah, I apologize," she drops her bag at her feet. "Let's get started on tutoring."

"You're never late," he says, ignoring her. "Why are you late?" He raises a brow.

"No reason," her pitch heightens, her fingers pulling back a strand of hair, carefully adjusting the rings in her binder. He studies her; probably taking in the slight messiness to her hair and the bright pink of her lips but says nothing about it.

"Now you can't yell at me the next time I'm late for tutoring," he smirks. Jinora huffs before smacking his arm with a binder.

"Whatever, Swamp Eyes."

* * *

**A/N: Finally got this done even with it being so short, I promise there would be no "love triangle" in the future chapters (I pretty much am tired of that cliche). **

**To be honest from the last few episodes, I'm finding Ikki a whole lot more relatable (along with Korra too). Hopefully Jinora and Kai would get more spotlight in the future episodes but I somewhat doubt it.**

**Reviews are appreciated along with predictions for future chapters!**


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